12 Teaching Tips for Talented Teachers of Children
Part 4: Cherish the Children

1. Make the rules, which should be fair and consistent, clear from the first day of class. Keep them year-round.
   

2. Remember the students’ names the first time you meet them. Encourage all students to remember their classmates’ names. Use their names often when teaching (ie., talking to them, constructing blackboard sentences, making requests, TPR exercises, students passing back notebooks or workbooks etc.).

3. Show your students what to do. Model and gesture the English you want them to speak. Don’t explain. Just do. Just be. They will follow your lead. English needs to be experienced, not explained.
   

4. Nourish trust between you and the students with each class. Through your actions let them know that you will never embarrass them for making a mistake in English. (Although you may discipline them for misbehaving or speaking in Japanese.)
   

5. Use eye contact to communicate your praise and disappointment.
   

6. Create well-planned, consistent lessons with a predictable format which gives the students a sense of security and balance. Students feel more confident if they know what to expect.
   

7. Always show that you are pleasantly surprised by smiling or nodding approval when students interact with each other or you in English.
   

8. Reassure your students that you understand their English and you approve of their attempts. Look into their eyes and say with a smile, “I like your English.”
   

9. Show respect to the children (since they are worthy of it) and let them sometimes be the teacher.
   

10. Use English as a tool to build their self-esteem. Learning the ABCs, counting, classifying, doing a self-introduction, greeting others and answering questions are all building blocks to English communication.

11. Be their “sensei,” not their parent. They have a parent at home who can pamper or coddle them; in the classroom be a trust-worthy adult role model who is fair, friendly, focused yet firm.
    
    

12. Remember childhood through your students.

Helene J. Uchida

Helene J. Uchida's column, Cherish The Children, is published on the last Friday of every month. Stay INformed by checking out the IN the KNOW English Educator's Journal on the InTogether website for more articles from Helene and other amazing educators.